Method for producing an enhanced gloss toner image on a substrate

Abstract

A method for producing an enhanced gloss electrophotographic toner image on a substrate by passing a substrate bearing a fusible toner particle image through a fusing zone to produce a substrate bearing a fused toner image, passing the substrate bearing the fused toner image through a cooling zone to produce a cooled substrate bearing the fused toner mage and passing the cooled substrate bearing the fused toner image to a release zone where a cooled substrate bearing an enhanced gloss image is released, wherein the fusible toner particle image is covered by a clear toner layer.

1 . A method for producing an enhanced gloss electrophotographic toner image on a substrate, the method comprising: 
 a) passing a substrate bearing an image comprising colored fusible toner particles through a fusing zone to fuse the fusible toner particles and produce a substrate bearing a fused toner image;    b) passing the substrate bearing the fused toner image through a cooling zone to produce a cooled substrate bearing the fused toner mage; and    c) passing the cooled substrate bearing the fused toner image to a release zone where a cooled substrate bearing an enhanced gloss image is released, wherein the image comprising fusible toner particles contains at least one colored toner layer covered by a clear toner layer.    
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the colored toner is a black toner.  
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the colored toner is a magenta toner.  
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the colored toner is a cyan toner.  
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the colored toner is a yellow toner.  
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the colored toner comprises at least two of a magenta toner, a cyan toner, a yellow toner and a black toner.  
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the image comprising fusible toner particles is fused at a temperature below about 200° C.  
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the image comprising fusible toner particles is fused at a temperature from about 100° to about 140° C.  
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the image comprising fusible toner particles is fused at a pressure from about 3 to about 15 kg/cm 2 .  
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the substrate bearing the fused image is cooled in the cooling zone to reduce the temperature of the substrate bearing the fused image by at least 40° C.  
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10  wherein the temperature reduction is from about 40 to about 90° C.  
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the cooled substrate bearing the fused image is released at a temperature from about 30 to about 75° C.  
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the gloss level of the image on the cooled substrate bearing an enhanced gloss image is from about 20 to about 100.  
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the gloss level is from about 50 to about 100.  
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the clear toner contains from about 2.5 to about 10 weight percent of an aliphatic, olefinic, hindered or unhindered ester wax.  
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the aliphatic, olefinic, hindered or unhindered ester wax has an average molecular weight less than about 2000.  
     
     
         17 . In a method for producing an enhanced gloss image on a substrate by positioning an image comprising colored fusible toner particles on a substrate, fusing the toner particles in a fuser to produce a fused image on the substrate, cooling the substrate bearing the fused image and releasing the coated substrate bearing the fused toner image, the improvement comprising positioning a layer of clear toner particles over the image comprising colored fusible toner particles.  
     
     
         18 . The improvement of  claim 17  wherein the colored toners comprise at least one of black, magenta, cyan, and yellow toners.  
     
     
         19 . The improvement of  claim 17  wherein the toners are fused at a temperature from about 100° to about 140° C.  
     
     
         20 . The improvement of  claim 17  wherein the enhanced gloss image has a gloss from about 20 to about 100.